Saturday, May 5, 2012

Wolf Kills Four NE Oregon Sheep, Fifth Missing

From KTVZ.COM News Sources
May 3, 2012

PENDLETON, Ore. -- Four
penned sheep (two ewes, two lambs) were killed by a wolf on private
land east of Weston, in northern Umatilla County, the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife reported Thursday.One additional lamb is missing and believed to have been killed by the wolf, the agency said after Wednesday's investigation.The
incident occurred in an area not known to be frequented by one of
Oregon’s known wolf packs (Imnaha, Wenaha, Walla Walla, Snake River) but
by two wolves discovered last August in the northern Mt Emily wildlife
management unit.Based on evidence at the scene, wildlife biologists believe a single wolf was involved in the depredation.

ODFW
immediately helped the landowner install electrified fladry, a type of
fencing that can deter wolves, around the sheep pens. ODFW is also
working to capture and radio-collar the wolf.This marks the first
time ODFW has confirmed a wolf kill of livestock in Umatilla County.
The county has an active Wolf Depredation Advisory Committee under the
state’s new Oregon Wolf Depredation Compensation and Financial
Assistance County Block Grant Program, and the landowner is eligible to
seek compensation for the loss.The five dead sheep bring the
total number of livestock animals killed by wolves in Oregon to 57 since
2009.

The film offers an abbreviated history of the relationship between wolves and people—told from the wolf’s perspective—from a time when they coexisted to an era in which people began to fear and exterminate the wolves.

The return of wolves to the northern Rocky Mountains has been called one of America’s greatest conservation stories. But wolves are facing new attacks by members of Congress who are gunning to remove Endangered Species Act protections before the species has recovered.

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Inescapably, the realization was being borne in upon my preconditioned mind that the centuries-old and universally accepted human concept of wolf character was a palpable lie... From this hour onward, I would go open-minded into the lupine world and learn to see and know the wolves, not for what they were supposed to be, but for what they actually were.

-Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf

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“If you look into the eyes of a wild wolf, there is something there more powerful than many humans can accept.” – Suzanne Stone